Neighbour jailed for branding pedophile's genitals

August 29 2002

A man who helped brand a neighbour in Michigan with a hot metal spatula on his genitals and buttocks after learning he had been sodomising young boys was sentenced to 19 months in prison today for his role in the attack.

Randolp Evans, 38, stood quietly, his hands cuffed, as Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Nanci Grant told him while she understood his motives, she could not condone his actions.

"There is no justice in vigilante justice," the judge said.

"Justice is built on truth, process, proof, appropriate punishment and sometimes even mercy. When the justice system is placed in the hands of criminals and violent people ... the foundation of justice become emotional and personal gain."

Evans and two other men admitted to attacking Phillip Gibson, 38, on November 11, 2000, after learning Gibson had been assaulting two of his nephews, aged 7 and 10. ");document.write("

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The men were friends of the boys' mother. They dragged Gibson into the kitchen, removed his pants, heated a metal spatula on the stove, and repeatedly burned him.

Gibson suffered first, second and third degree burns and was hospitalised for three weeks.

In June 2001, he was convicted of sexually assaulting the two boys, and is serving an eight to 40-year prison sentence.

Today, Evans' lawyer Jerome Fenton asked the judge to show mercy in her sentencing of his client, and to send him to prison for less than the 19 months under state guidelines.

"This was a basic human response," Fenton said. "It is not his nature to do that type of crime. It was something he couldn't tolerate."

But prosecutor Ken Frazee said Evans' actions, and that of his co-defendants - they stopped burning Gibson only long enough to reheat the spatula - warranted prison time.

While Gibson had committed terrible crimes on the boys, "when you look at the defendant's actions, they are also terrible and deserve punishment", Frazee said.

Evans is already serving a two to 40-year sentence after being arrested and convicted for drug delivery several months following his assault on Gibson. Grant's sentence will be added to that.

His co-defendant Dewon Williams, 21, is also in prison, serving a life sentence for an unrelated murder he committed several months after his attack on Gibson.

He was sentenced earlier this month to one year for the attack. A third defendant, Billy Hatten, 41, will be sentenced on September 3 before Grant. Like Evans, he pleaded guilty to one count of assault to do great bodily harm.